Don Pacifico

de Derek Taylor

The house of Don Pacifico, president of the Jewish community in Athens, was looted by a mob in April 1847. The riot was government-inspired and the courts were crooked. There was little chance of getting the large compensation Pacifico claimed until Viscount Palmerston, the British Foreign Secretary, became involved in a piece of gunboat diplomacy. The author has unearthed information which shows Pacifico to be a victim of prejudice rather than a con-man, and has shed new light on a fascinating episode of 19th-century European history.